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Talk:Magic Show/@comment-24020550-20140506094051
This episode is really good as it shows despite how Helga verbosely proclaims everyone will miss her and cry over her being gone; in her actual mind she is deeply insecure about her place in the world. She visits the 4 most important people in her world, and despite how she treats them, she does deeply care about them (even her parents, despite how they let her down alot and seem to ignore her, she still cares about them), which further upsets her at the fact it seems everyone is happier without her. It also shows how insecure she feels about her own relationships with others. Helga knows that her tough front is mean and quite vicious, basically an imitation of her father, who she sees as the strongest in the household. While she scrapes quite roughly with Bob, she recognizes that he's the toughest around, and by imitating him she can appear tough so that others won't take advantage of her quite vunerable self, kind of taking the 'You can't hurt me if I don't let you close to me' mentality. Upon seeing her parents, Helga shows us that she subconciously fears she is the cause that makes her father a cut-throat workaholic, and the reason her mother is an alocholic and why they constantly fight. When seeing Phoebe, she shows that she knows she can be a terrible friend, and fears that Phoebe isn't happy being her best friend and if given the chance would easily forget her. When seeing the other kids, she shows her actual fear of being hated by others and being replaced by a kindly, beautiful doppleganger (the same one had Phoebe's friendship now) that everyone loves, who acts the way Helga wishes she could be but won't out of fear. Even her statement 'I never knew people didn't like me' proves that she actually has the fear of being hated. Unfortunatly for Helga, despite this fear, she can't help herself out of her other fear of people getting too close and being able to hurt her. She's caught in a horrible catch 22 of wanting to protect herself but at the same time wanting to be loved. Then, upon seeing Arnold, the one person in her life that doesn't seem like he really will ever harm her (which is why she obessess over him, he seems to be the only person to show her true kindness, to which she feels is the only piece of real love she can really hold onto, as her parents' and sister's love seems fleeting to her and she's not sure how to categorize Phoebe's feelings towards her((ie: friendship or minionship)). Still though she's not matured enough to push past her fear of being hurt or appearing weak, and therefore lashes out at him the most for his attention) doesn't miss her, and now is with the girl he has a crush with. Her worse nightmare as it means she is now totally hated and alone. Probably enough to shove anyone out of a fear-driven dream. At the end of the dream Helga figures out what her subconcious is trying to tell her (atleast somewhat) that she should try to care more openly about those she loves. It was a good lesson episode and a good growth episode for Helga. She tones downs her roughness a tiny bit and attempts to show she cares for those she loves, though she's still the rough and tumble Helga we all know and love.